Economics or Management, Management or Business Engineering ?

Economist or Manager?

At Bachelor level, there is a joint study program. Economics and Management are two very complementary disciplines, which use the same tools, which have a range of careers in common and which both contribute to the development of a company and of society in general. For both disciplines, students need to have a desire to understand how business, the market and the global economy work.

However, there are some specific points which differentiate them:

• In Management, studies focus on regulatory, societal and human aspects. A manager is more concerned with the key functions of a company, such as business finance, human resources management, marketing, the law and entrepreneurship, etc.

• In Economics, the accent is on “macro” aspects, that is to say the way economics function, nationally and internationally, in a world context, and on the understanding of global mechanisms determined by individuals, businesses and governments, on analysis, as well as the public aspects. An economist will focus on public administration, private organizations (bank economists) and public institutions (office of planning, BNB).

Management studies or Business Engineering?

When a student starts his/her studies at HEC Liège, they will have to make a choice between a bachelor in Economics and Management and a bachelor in Business Engineering.

Many courses are identical in the two streams. However, Business Engineering offers

more quantitative methods

a strong emphasis on analytical reasoning

IT holds an important place

the fundamentals of science and the interactions between industrial science/ technique/ innovation: these translate into science courses (chemistry, physics, etc.), particularly in the first year or two of the program